Regions: East India

Pods, beans and green manure from one undemanding monsoon plant.

The winter sem of the plains, purple-flowered and heavy-cropping on a fence.

Peppery leaves in five weeks, and yellow flowers for the bees after.

A thick-leaved climbing spinach that thrives in the worst of the monsoon heat.

A deep trough and forty days is all it asks. Thin ruthlessly for straight roots.

One good plant in a 40 cm pot out-yields four crowded ones. Stake it early.

One plant on a sill supplies a household, and crops for two years.

A long-season crop that rewards a big pot and steady feeding.

Summer staple for a sunny terrace; pick every second day or pods turn woody.

A monsoon climber that will roof a terrace in eight weeks given a frame.